Kids Fishing Club to offer classes

Mark Rogge got his 10-year-old son Ethan hooked on fishing when he was in diapers.

Taking his son along to the lake was the only way his wife would let him go. The Weston residents today share a love for fishing and have bonded over it ever since.

"It has been phenomenal," Rogge said. "… As a kid myself, I had always fished and my father with his father. There is a legacy there. Some of my best memories of my own childhood were when I was fishing with my dad. It was important to introduce it to my son."

Ethan wants the same experience for other children, which led to starting the Kids Fishing Club a few years ago. Now the young fisherman and his dad are taking it a step further by offering classes in their fishing school as soon as January.

"I think it's really fun," Ethan said. "I love practicing and love having the skills to do it. I go maybe a few times a month. The one tip I give kids is to keep practicing. It's pretty amazing to see the club have so many people."

More than 1,000 youngsters have participated in the 30 or so events they've hosted throughout Broward County. The club supplies rods, reels, tackle and other necessities with support from local donors and funding from the nonprofit Fish Florida.

The fishing school is in the early stages of development. Mark Rogge is planning for the classes to accommodate 15 to 20 kids in a more intimate atmosphere. They will split time between fishing at the lake and classroom instruction.

"The classroom may be a gazebo or a park bench somewhere with a dry erase board, but it will cover topics such as the physics of casting," he said. "I was thinking about this the other day of what it is that exactly makes the lure go from 20 feet to 100 feet. There is physics involved in this.

"A 10-year-old may not be ready for the math, but given a little more information, maybe they will be able to increase how far they cast. So that will be a good lesson for them."

Other topics will include fishing with live bait, artificial bait, lures and a miniature derby to apply the concepts learned.

"The classes are also going to be a lot of fun, and I think kids are going to like it," Ethan said. "It's sort of like a summer camp in the middle of the year, which will be cool."